Every developer seems to have one of those donation buttons today. It makes perfect sense: make product, get money. The idea is splendid, on paper, but how many actually donate? I don't feel morally obligated to donate to creators of free software, so I don't donate. Do you?

Nope, but then I never have any damn spare cash as it is.
Take this week, for example.
I paid my bills early, I've bought a few Xmas pressies.
I was in "Free Week!!" heaven, and ready for spending a bit of cash for a change.

Then I got swine flu, took a week off work, and I'm back at square 1 again.
Fucksocks.

If I had spare cash to do so, I think I probably would donate a bit here or there, but it'd have to be something I play for a while. Something I'd keep coming back to.

You'd be surprised sometimes -- I've seen people that work for actual organizations donating when a piece of freeware saves their neck, and sometimes donating pretty heafty sums (in excess of $100).

It's probably not as easy to get donations for something like games, but for system recovery and business productivity software, I'm sure they get a little bit of padding in the wallet (as long as it's good).